"Genius without education is like silver in the mine." Benjamin Franklin

It’s October. Do you know where your child’s IEP is?

The beginning of October is an important checkpoint for parents of children with Individualized Education Plans (IEPs). By the time October arrives, your child’s school and teachers have had a month, sometimes more, to get to know your child and to understand how your child functions in the school environment. If your child has an IEP, this also means your school should have that IEP up and running. And as a parent you need to make sure that’s happening.

How? The best place to start is the actual IEP. Parents should go back and conduct a quick review of it. Here are the three main parts to the IEP parents should review as part of this “quick check” exercise:

Annual Goals & Short Term Objectives: these are the academic and functional goals that allow your child to make progress in the general education curriculum. Parents can start by going over the goals with their child. Parents also can review completed work sent home, and ask the teacher(s) for time to review the completed work file at school. Teachers generally either keep a file of completed and/or ongoing work at school, or send it home on a regular basis. Many school districts now offer parent access to online grading so that student work completion and grades can be monitored at home. This is a terrific resource for parents. No matter which method you choose, it’s critical for parents to monitor completed work, and that includes work on IEP goals.

Overall, it’s important for parents to not wait until report card time or IEP progress report updates before doing a quick check on how things are going, as those more formal reports are issued infrequently (usually two or three times per year). IEPs are a complicated machine with many moving parts. For them to work and work well they need to be monitored and checked on a regular basis. As is the case with practically every machine, regular inspection and maintenance is more effective than waiting for a complete breakdown.

Program Accommodations/Modifications and Support for School Personnel – The accommodations/modifications portion of the IEP arguably is the most important. These are the specific tools students with disabilities need to help them make progress in school. Typically they cover areas related to the presentation of materials, timing/scheduling of classwork/homework, and the setting and format of instruction.

To ensure accommodations and modifications are being implemented, parents again can ask their child, their teacher, or review/observe completed work. In my years of representing parents in the special education process, the accommodations/modifications piece frequently is overlooked or misunderstood. At times responsibility for implementation is murky, which can result in accommodations falling off or not being implemented properly or consistently.

Service Matrix – This is the part of the IEP that details the level, frequency and duration of services the child receives, who is responsible for providing the service, and the location for delivery of it. For example, a student who has reading goals might receive instruction from a special education or reading teacher 30 minutes per day, four times per week, in a resource room. Again, now that we have reached October, it is vital for parents to check to make sure those specific services are being delivered as described in the service matrix. Other types of services commonly seen in IEPs include speech therapy, occupational therapy, and behavioral support.

All of the above checks can be accomplished through (an always polite and brief) email to teachers, review of work sent home and possibly a quick visit to school to look at the completed work file. Building in these regular “well-checks” help parents become proactive partners in the IEP process. Most importantly, developing the habit of regular check-ins can help decrease the stress and frustration that often is associated with managing your child’s IEP.